It’s been a long time coming. I started posting this back in March, but the story itself has been with me since 2023. It’s been my constant project, my problem child, my favorite thing I’ve ever written. Finishing it feels surreal. Both pride and sadness.
This story stuck with me through writer’s block, through burnout, through everything. Even when I couldn’t write, it lived in the back of my mind. Finally getting to the end means a lot.
At some point, I’m going to do a little behind-the-scenes deep dive on all the threads, foreshadowing, and all the work that went into it (similar to what I did for Filing Off the Serial Numbers) because there’s so much layered into this one. It’s dark and messy and full of meaning, and I’m really proud of how it turned out.
If you’ve been reading along, thank you. And if you haven’t yet, I hope you’ll give it a chance.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Dean Winchester was a man to be both admired and feared. He’d taken over his father’s pharmaceutical company at just twenty-two and rebranded it as Winchester Technology. He expanded the business model to include robots with AI chips, meant to be doctor and nurse assistants, and began mass producing these robots. Within just one year his robots replaced every and all others in hospitals and medical institutions across the globe. The quality of these robots outranked any competition from being able to outdo him or even compete in the first place. The amount of reports of malfunctions or flaws were so small, Winchester Technology Headquarters could count all their files of reports on just one employee’s single, tiny, little hand.
And then Dean had the idea to expand. He saw the market that his biggest…rival—if he could even be called that—The Zachariah Corporation had begun producing robots for: he need for domestic help in the form of AI. And Dean set to work. He spent so many sleepless nights in his office going over the logistics and schematics of how to transform robotic AIs into android AI. It got to the point where he almost quit all together, but then it hit him. He was essentially creating a new life—the AI chips would serve as an android’s brain and would need to have the capability to adapt and learn and grow. Putting something that powerful into the robots he’d already made would never work; he needed to make a whole new vessel for these… Angels.
With the help of his head tech expert, Charlie Bradbury, and the production plant manager of his company, Ash Miles—and some crucial input from his brother, Sam, who’d gone into biological advancements—Dean and his team were able to do it. They created the vessel for the first ever Angel Companion.
Dean had waited, had held his breath until he was lightheaded when they switched the companion on for the first time and he sat up. The companion had looked around with wide, calculating, almost cold blue eyes. He was taking everything in, storing it in the almost infinite data bank Dean had created for him. And then he finally—finally settled his eyes on Dean and introduced himself.
Castiel spent the next year learning everything he could, reading book after book after book and storing all of it in his data bank. He spent 365 days and just as many nights right by Dean’s side, growing to feel what Castiel learned to be love.
When two mid level managers came to work on the one year anniversary of Castiel’s waking and walked into Dean’s office to see clothes scattered around the room…?
When they saw two pairs of feet sticking out from behind Dean’s desk…?
Their only reaction was to hightailed it out of there and stop anyone who may try and see Dean for the rest of the day.
Dean and Castiel? Together? It was no surprise to anyone.
After another year, and a very private—and technically not legally binding—marriage, Dean decided it was time to unveil these androids to the world. He got Castiel’s blessing, and they called a press conference together.
~
“What will my latest piece of technology be?”
“Yes sir,” a reporter answered. She looked at Dean with rapt attention. He smiled at her before sweeping his gaze over the mass of press employees.
“Well,” he started, darting his tongue out to wet his lips before continuing. “Why don't I just show you?”
“Mr. Winchester!” A males voice boomed from the other side of the pavilion. Dean slowly turned his head in the direction of the man. “Are you saying you're going to announce your latest invention today? Right now?”
“Duh,” Dean said, stopping himself from rolling his eyes. He straightened his back and looked straight out at the crowd. “I’ve been working on creating a… Companion, of sorts.”
“What do you mean?” A different female reporter asked. “Are they like the robots Zachariah Corp put out last year?”
“Are you fucking joking?” Dean laughed. There were some gasps of surprise at the use of such language. “Zachariah’s sex dolls are pieces of shit. They're use is limited. The companions I’m putting out aren't simply for sex. They’re uses are for those who need help or an extra hand. Each one has brain, in essence, that can adapt to his or her human’s needs while maintaining free thoughts and personality. They learn and grow just as we do. Zachariah’s sex dolls don’t have that technology, do they?’
"Are they programmable?”
"Partially. They’re a new kind of being—not quite human, but not robots. Each one’s prime need and want is to serve and protect,” Dean said, suppressing another eye roll because it was more complicated than that, but the people here wouldn’t be able to follow the logic.
“How do you acquire one?”
Dean sighed and picked at his nails. He’d wanted this conference, but he always forgot how tedious they were.
“Essentially…they’re to be given out like a doctor would prescribe a medicine.”
“They can't be bought?”
“Mostly. You’ll have to apply for a companion. I won’t be bribed to just hand them out like they’re objects. They’re not objects, they’re a new kind of ‘people’. They have free thoughts and free will.”
“Doesn’t giving them free will negate the reason for creating them?”
Dean couldn’t stop the smile that came to his face as he turned to look at the man who asked that question.
“What are you? Stupid?” He asked, laughing when the reporter’s face turned a bright red. “They’re called Angel Companions for a reason, buddy. They want to heal and help. That doesn’t mean they can’t also have likes and dislikes.”
The crowd was as silent as a crowd could be until one female reporter stepped up and broke it.
“Will they look like the medical robots you’ve produced in the past?”
Dean felt adrenaline sweep through him. He may hate the press, the tiring and unnecessary revealing these conferences tended to be… But he always loved the reaction after the reveal.
“As I believe I said much too long ago, why don’t I show you?” Dean swept his arm out as a human sized box was wheeled out. It was covered in a red velvet sheet. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said loudly, moving away from the podium. He heard the beep of his shirt mic being turned on as he grabbed a fistful of the sheet. “I present to you from Winchester Technology, my Angel Companion: Cas.”
Dean watched as Castiel stepped out and onto the stage, that same look on his face Dean had seen the first day they met.
“My name is Castiel,” he said. “But you can call me Cas.”
A beat of utter silence followed before the crowd went wild.
is now up! I posted early since AO3 is going to be down tomorrow and Friday is my normal posting day. Big reveal in this one. Lots of secrets coming to light in the next several chapters.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
I made you all wait, but we are finally getting backstory. What happened to Dean while he was in the military? We get our first “Then: Dean” chapter this week.
Dean has made references to the “Tin Man” and now we get to meet him.
I just posted a chapter of my fic about Shapeshifter!Castiel, Dark Blue.
I haven’t bragged as much about Dark Blue as I have The Android, but not because I’m not also proud of it.
With The Android I have been working on that thing since 2023 and it was the first really massive project I ever finished. It’s taken a lot of work. It’s been my baby.
Conversely, Dark Blue has been super easy. It started off as a plot bunny that sat for years but other than that original paragraph I didn’t think much about it.
After I finished the Android, I decided I wanted to do something easy and fluffier and started trying to work on an idea for a two person love triangle.
The problem was that while I may have been ready to move on, my brain apparently was not and delivered me Dark Blue pretty much fully formed.
What was really fun about Dark Blue though is I did something different than what I had done with the android. It worked out so well it’s also become how I have worked on the next one too.
I was on a road trip and used voice notes to pretty much plot out the entire thing. I was in the car for like eight hours and I spent the entire time going scene to scene and hitting all the major beats.
So when it came time to actually write the fic, I wrote it both really fast and really easily because I had all my transcribed notes from the road trip.
Dark Blue was a lot of fun to write, and although my original intention was to write a fun spy versus spy fic, it ended up being a little darker and a little more angsty than I intended.
And yet, even when I try to make something dark, these characters end up making it sweeter.
